In the sequel to the acclaimed The Girl of Fire and Thorns, a seventeen-year-old princess turned war queen faces sorcery, adventure, untold power, and romance as she fulfills her epic destiny.

Elisa is the hero of her country. She led her people to victory against a terrifying enemy, and now she is their queen. But she is only seventeen years old. Her rivals may have simply retreated, choosing stealth over battle. And no one within her court trusts her-except Hector, the commander of the royal guard, and her companions. As the country begins to crumble beneath her and her enemies emerge from the shadows, Elisa will take another journey. With a one-eyed warrior, a loyal friend, an enemy defector, and the man she is falling in love with, Elisa crosses the ocean in search of the perilous, uncharted, and mythical source of the Godstone's power. That is not all she finds. A breathtaking, romantic, and dangerous second volume in the Fire and Thorns trilogy.

I’m just going to start this review by saying that The Crown of Embers is about fifty billion times better than The Girl of Fire and Thorns, and considering I really really REALLY liked the latter, that is saying something. Just to illustrate my state of mind while reading this book, I give you—The 6 Stages of Embers:

Stage 1: *shifty eyes* This is too good to be true, right? Best first chapter of a novel ever! Elisa, why are you so cool?

Stage 5: HECTOR!!! And dayum, Elisa you are sexy when you’re bossy. Get it, gurl.

Stage 6: …oh. It’s over? But but but…no! What about Hector?!

Right. So as you can see, for the majority of this book I was riding on an intense high of “this is so awesome!” which is always fun. I definitely need to find more books that make me feel like that. But, sadly, just because I liked The Crown of Embers better than its prequel didn’t mean it was perfect. And this book wasn’t perfect for me, as evidenced by Stage 4 of my reading experience. And, since I’m getting the bad out of the way first to focus on the overwhelming awesome, we’ll discuss Stage 4 now.

So, my big problem with The Girl of Fire and Thorns was the religious aspect. Because, essentially, Rae Carson borrowed wholesale from Judeo-Christian ideology and plopped it down in her supposed “fantasy” world. Now doesn’t it seem to you that if you were going to write a fantasy novel you’d, you know, want to have fantasy elements in it? It seems inexcusably lazy to just steal Christian concepts and scripture. Lazy, I say. I was really relieved, then, when the first half of The Crown of Embers revealed no copying of the Bible. Really, it’s not the themes and messages I object to so much as the blatant plagiarism of passages from the Bible. Because that’s beyond lazy. And guess what? After the halfway mark, The Crown of Embers straight-up plagiarized multiple verses from the Bible. To give you an idea, Carson stole from the book of Ruth, Psalms, the Gospels, and some other New and Old Testament books that I can’t remember off the top of my head. Full, nearly verbatim phrases. Straight from the Bible. Not even kidding.

Stealing words from another source—no matter what that source is, then inserting those exact same words into your book and passing them off as your own. Is that not the very definition of plagiarism? It is, yes? There is no justification for plagiarism. It’s inexcusable and I will forever hold a grudge against Rae Carson for being A PLAGIARIST.

But, as frustrated as that whole lazy world-building, cheap trick mythology makes me, The Crown of Embers is still an extremely good book, though I must say the last 100 pages or so felt a bit…off. But anyway.

This book starts with a flourish. Elisa is running around town doing queenly things when BAM, assassination attempt. And then in the first 10 chapters, there are 2 more assassination attempts and other bad things. Obviously, this girl has problems, and the biggest one is how much she’s attracted to her hunky Commander of the Royal Guard, Lord Hector. Hector, by the way, wins all the awards for genuine, swoonable YA love interest. He just wins.

The first half of The Crown of Embers deals mostly with court politics and scheming lords, etc. And that, honestly, is my favorite type of plot technique in any given fantasy novel. It makes me giddy and makes me think about people and I love it when there are poisonings and stabbings and midnight trysts. Yes I do. The second half of the novel deals with Elisa sneaking south to go on a quest so that she can commune with God more closely—and that’s where the excessive Bible-quoting comes in. That aspect, honestly, was just as well done as the court politics section, but I got tired of it a bit more quickly. Quests and adventurous journeys aren’t as interesting to me, personally. And the ridiculous amount of unresolved sexual tension between Elisa and Hector was driving me batty. Batty in a good way, obviously.

I will now take this opportunity to explain why Elisa is a fantastic female protagonist. #1: she’s not beautiful but she doesn’t spend all her time complaining about how ugly she is. #2: she’s smart and brave and proactive. #3: her sense of humor is self-depreciating but not in a depressing, shoot-me-now kind of way. #4: THIS SCENE—

I clench my hands into fists and yell, “Hector!”
He whips around.
“You were never, never, going to be just a diversion to me.”
He sighs, nodding. “That was unfair of me,” he says. “I’m sorry—”
“And you will kiss me again. That and more. Count on it” (pg. 359).

Yep. Bossy Elisa is sexy. And gets a big round of applause from yours truly. Winning.

So, in the end, all I have to say is this: The Crown of Embers is pretty darn good. Except for the Biblical plagiarism. But I suspect that Carson got away with that since the majority of her readers won’t be able to point fingers at aforementioned plagiarism, not being familiar enough with the Bible. That puts me in the minority. So if you liked The Girl of Fire and Thorns and enjoy passionate protagonists and action-intensive plotlines, read this book. It has that and more.

Renae writes book reviews for Respiring Thoughts. Aside from reading and critical analysis, her interests include classic film, dogs, hiking, and feminism. She is currently attending school to attain her undergraduate degree in English; when not at college, she lives in the mountains of Colorado. Connect with Renae on Twitter and Goodreads.

15 Responses to “Book Review: The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson”

I can’t WAIT to get through my NetGalley reads in order to read what I want again! I loved The Girl of Fire and Thorns (it was a five-star read for me), so I can only imagine I’ll need to find an extra star to give The Crown of Embers.

OMG, if you love this book enough, you should have a special 6 star rating! Do eet! Anyway, yeah, if you loved The Girl of Fire and Thorns, then this is basically the same stuff, only WAY BETTER.

*sigh* That article. I could fill about 2 and a half ranty posts with the ways I don’t like that. Definitely thanks for linking it though. Now I know that not only is everyone else aware of Carson’s plagiarism, they think it’s cool. Whatevs.

I loved The Girl of Fire and Thorns when it came out. Elisa was such an amazing main character to follow and I’m really interested in the rest of the series. I’m excited to hear that you think this one is better than the first book, I usually find I’m impartial to the second book in a series so this gets me interested Great review, I’m glad to hear that despite Carson taking passages straight from the Bible (which I will hold a grudge for as well) this book is still awesome!Andrea @Cozy Up With A Good Read recently posted…Review: Unremembered by Jessica Brody

Second Book Syndrome is a serious issue and I don’t know why it exists. But thank goodness The Crown of Embers didn’t have that issue!

In regards to the Bible plagiarism: apparently this series takes place in “the future” so it really is Christianity that these people are practicing. Or, that’s what Rae Carson says. But I still think it’s plagiarism and lazy world-building, so whatever. 😉

I’m mostly too lazy to actually comment, so I’m using Twitter, BUT I have to say this:

I am not familiar with the Bible hardly at all (never went to church regularly or anything) and I recognized a lot of the elements and even phrases as Biblical. I don’t think she was that sneaky about it.Christina (A Reader of Fictions) recently posted…In Defense of Romance

Hey, Twitter conversations work too. Much more accessible to talk about mustache-less Hector and all his WAZZAH.

But yeah…it doesn’t seem like she was trying to be sneaky, based on that HuffPo article, but still. I’m not a big fan of the author at this moment, regardless of what I feel about the books themselves.

LOL i love the stages! You should do that for every review! “Unresolved Sexual Tension. Do it.” Sexual tension FTW! I haven’t read this series yet but I have book 1 sitting on my shelf, for real, since it came out lol. I really have to get to it especially since I could read book 2 right away. It could go either way though. Court politics are WAY not for me, but when scheming lords are involved, maybe! Yeah I know I’m uber picky when it comes to fantasy especially. Great review, muffin cups!Giselle recently posted…Review: Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley

The romantic aspect doesn’t come into play until the second book, sadly. (Elisa has a love interest in book 1 but it ends.) But Hector is amazing and he’s pretty much the only reason this book got 4 stars. One of my favorite YA love interests.

Whoa is he that sweet and adorable? I still haven’t read The Crown of Embers, but now if there’s an adorable and lovable romance, I”m all in!Angie @YA Novelties recently posted…Review: Solar, Defeated by Diantha Jones

I love the stages of your reading experience—so funny! I still haven’t read this one, but I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it mostly. Though the Bible plagiarism is a bit disconcerting. I have a feeling the Hector/Elisa sexual tension is going to drive me batty too, but I’m very much looking forward to it. Wonderful review!Lauren Elizabeth recently posted…Book Review: How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller

The “plagiarism” (as I call it) may or may not be an issue—lots of readers actually seem to like it. I think it depends on how you feel about Carson’s stated intent and how that intent is actually translated into the text.

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Respiring Thoughts is a book review site run by Renae, a dog-lover and naptime aficionado. The selection of books featured on this blog is eclectic and varies from month to month, though generally Renae reads a mix of historical fiction, contemporary and historical romance, and literary fiction—though it's safe to say that Renae reads practically anything. Reviews posted on Respiring Thoughts are analytic and usually presented through a feminist lens.